20:53
Something about being here is like evoking some deep childhood memory or something. Like it feels like places that used to exist and then kind of fell by the wayside. In Mingo County, West Virginia, it feels like time has stopped. The area is now a time capsule mixing what Appalachia once was. So my vision this little store being like something from the 50s and 60s and what it is today. The North Cam, you know, it's saved my life quite a few times. It has. I don't know why for I keep going run right back to it and doing it again.
You know, a lot of people grow up in single parent homes or growing up basically raising ourselves here. They kind of have to learn to do everything. It's a hard thing to do to find a job close by. to take a trip back in time. Come with us to the empty downtowns, old school stores, and the haunted buildings. Who was that? Did you hear that? Along the Tug Fork River, we are back in Appalachia's most remote border. Behind us is the Holler in Kentucky where we shot that video right on the border with West Virginia. Well, today we are driving up the river
through Kentucky, crossing over into West Virginia, and seeing what it's like over the river on that side of Appalachia's most remote border. So, come with us on this journey as we explore this fascinating and complicated part of America. That was cuz that's like a mansion. I looks like a mansion over there. That was a mansion back in the day. That was probably line. You know what I mean? probably for my guy that was over with the mine or whatever. I figured three or four people above all one family. Uh me and that house have her granddaughter live and my daughter live. It's a hard thing to do to find a job close by. I hope there's something going in this building one day. From here, a bridge took us over the Tug
Fork River and into Mingo County, West Virginia. The state's second poorest county and the 38th poorest in America. Tell you what, I've lived in this county my whole life. So, this is Mingo County, right? Yeah, this is Mingo County. I live with the most southern county in West Virginia. Kentucky is just right over there. Well, how's how's this part of West Virginia different from say other parts of West Virginia? I feel like people here are a lot more old-fashioned. I would say people tend to be a lot more genuine. I mean, people talk about it as like a little bit of a poorer area, which I mean, I would say like it still kind of is, but like
there's still like a lot of good stuff here. We noticed that Kentucky side the how Yeah. genuine people are and how real. And I'm not surprised that here is the same kind of deal over here. A lot of people just aren't ashamed to be theelves. A lot of people I feel like when we grow up like certain morals, a lot of people are good at holding them to theelves, you know, throughout their whole life and stuff. Uh, a lot of people proud of who we are, you know, where we come from, what our last name is, for sure. How old are you? Uh, I'm 18. I'm about to be 19. I'm born and raised in Mingo County.
Well, you say you're going to college elsewhere right now. Yeah, I go into college up in Gilmer County. So, it's about 3 hours away, about an hour and a half away from Morgantown. One person that helped me out, I had a really good teacher uh down at Tug Valley. Her name is Lorraine Davis. She's actually my cousin. I think she kind of prepared me like with the work ethic, with pushing me to do good on my SAT and ACT. And even, you know, now that I'm in college, I still have a lot of support from people here, always messaging me, tell me that, you know, they're proud of me and stuff and, you know, they're glad that I made it where I did.
What kind of values do you think people have here that are stronger or different from other places? Family is a big thing for us. Uh, family comes before anything, you know, like, you know, I got family I ain't talked to in, you know, months that stay around here where I've been up in school and stuff, but I mean, there's not no doubt in my mind. If I called them right now and told them I needed them, you know, they show up and show out for me. The people around here are so much more knowledgeable than people elsewhere. I don't really understand where I guess I don't know if it's a cultural thing or what, but it seems like there's something here like in the water that
leads people to be, you know, a bit more a lot of hard workers for sure. Yeah, we got a lot of people here that and you know there's some people that haven't been, you know, as fortunate to grow up and like a lot of people growing up in single parent homes or growing up basically raising ourselves here that kind of have to learn to do everything. So yeah, drugs are a huge issue in this part of the country. Everyone knows that, right? Yeah. Why do you think it is though? Is it just poverty or is it's like you said, you know, it's no secret, you know, drugs are a problem around here and not everyone that, you know, does have to go through that is like a bad person. It's like there is a
lot of people that go through a lot of bad stuff here. So a lot of them, you know, turn to alcohol, turn to drugs and it's really sad. I've known a lot of people to end up getting out of school and just end up, you know, going down kind of that route and stuff. But yeah, man, it's it is sad for sure cuz I mean, we lived in amazing town. We have a lot of amazing people with a lot of potential. Hopefully more people can just realize that, you know, that's not, you know, the way to do it. You know what I mean? Between 2005 and 2011, drug companies pumped 5.7 million painkiller pills.
14,000 pills per person into this town, Kermit, making it ground zero for the opioid crisis. One recent high school graduate we talked to off camera told us that he had four friends die in just the semester after graduation, but it would be worse in the next town. Honestly, uh they not me when I wake up. Give me lines. That's bad. To get there, we left and drove down the river. 131 lose their jobs yesterday. Yesterday alone. And last month there was 500 and some that lost their jobs. And uh that hurts.
Did you work in coal? Oh yeah. See, I'm 70. I started in 1973. So that's majority of my life right here. Never made a lot of money, but I had a lot of fun. What impact has Trump had, for good or for bad, on coal. Has anything changed? He said he has sunk millions of dollars into, you know, helping us in southern West Virginia. We're yet to see it. If anything, it's gone worse. And I'm not political. I'm neither a Republican nor Democrat. Okay? When I vote, I vote for who I think is going to do best. But I'm not going to tell you that the terrorist has helped us any. I'll tell you that. So, it's all about the government getting rich. But when you need help, they'll forget about you. promise you that
my outlook on life in general is a whole lot different than a whole lot of people's. You ask about the United States, you ask about Trump, you ask about this and that. Here's my outlook. We're in war with Iran. Keep our nose out of that crap. Ukraine's got war going on. Keep our nose out of that crap. Worry about your American people. Worry about your veterans that's on the street that's homeless that fought for this country that give us our freedom that we have today. Take care of them. Quit sending billions of dollars across the seas. I couldn't care less what them people do with it. They holler about immigration reform. If they wasn't here to start
with, you wouldn't have to deal with them. That's how I see it. Wasn't too on the news they sent so many billions of dollars over there to have them circumcised. Yeah. that in a country that don't have nothing to do with us and like he said the veterans you ain't got nothing sleeping on the streets a veteran shouldn't want for nothing in the United States that's my only core with it whole situation right there because a lot of them never asked to join the army they say hey Uncle Sam need you come with me myself I'm a retired police officer but I've also drove a truck cross country you know and uh there's just nothing left here and what
people's going to do in southern West Virginia for a living. I have no clue. Back up and move, I guess. And you know, I've actually I'm 58 years old. I've contemplated on doing it myself, moving somewhere else. When we were children, it's booming down DC. I mean, you could uh you go anywhere. You could quit a job today and be working tonight somewhere else. Jobs were plentiful. And what was it DC? in the '9s, about mid 80s is when it started dwindling a little bit. Yep. There's nothing here in nothing. And no one, no politicians, no one wants to help this area. This time last year, our lake at Wilson is running $200 a month. Now, we're lucky if we get one less than $500. Oh, it won't raise your
bill, but $76 a month. The people down here don't have that kind of money. They're lucky to pay a $200 electric bill. You got people like my mom that lives on a fixed income. $900 a month. She's got rent. She's got electric. She's got everything else that comes with it. Where is a person supposed to eat? She goes to apply for food stamps. Yes, ma'am. Miss Chambers, we'll give you $13 a month. What is that going to buy? I mean, here like a lot of people think, "Oh, it's just poor." Well, it's not just poor. It's just it's you have all this other stuff on top of it, too,
right? You know, there is so many more people that feel just like I do. Yeah. But they're afraid to speak up. Look at Charlie Kirk. You want to talk about one? You asked the questions and I gave you the answers. Well, we appreciate it, Ernie. We uh You said we stopped in the wrong shack. We stopped in the right shack. You know, my buddy just left here. His name's Jimmy. And I just today I told him I said, "I've got a vision in my mind, but I can't make it happen." And my vision is this little store being like something from the 50s and 60s. I want to turn back time and slow time down. I want people to come in here and enjoy themsel have a conversation with us. To know
that you can stop and have a friendly conversation. You ain't got to buy anything. More likely I'm going to give you something to sit and cow on. That's what I look for. But you don't find it anymore. Do you DC? I do. You don't find it. used to back in the day. You come down this road and somebody was broke down. Hey, you weren't broke down long, was you? No. Somebody pulled in and helped you get going or they took you down the road. Nowadays, they'll run you over. Everybody was raised with one another. If somebody was sick, everybody gathered at their house. I know when we was when
I was growing up, if the kids we called it the mining camps, if a kid in the camp caught the MS, our grandparents take everybody his house. Everybody's going to get the measles and mumps one time. and then got it over with. Met a gentleman stop in here yesterday. He uh he wanted me to do something for him legal. And he offered to pay me. I said, "I can't do that." And he asked me why. This gentleman is 75 years old, military veteran that called in for us. I said, "I don't care to do it for you, but you're not paying me period." He said, "I can't do it." I said, "Well, I can't do it then." I said, "You paid me a long
time ago." He said, "What are you talking about?" I said, "Didn't you fight in the war for us?" "Yeah." I said, "So, you're part of the reason I'm standing here free?" "Yes, sir. I guess I am." I said, "Then you done paid that debt to me. I'm not always about money. You owe me nothing. Don't make my cry. That's how I live my life. That's how I raise my kids." That is what I've also instilled in my wife. and she feels the same way as I do. When I was a cop, you'll tell you the same thing. Arrested several people. Every individual that I arrested, I took money out of my own pocket to feed them. If you wanted to smoke a cigarette, state code may say you can't smoke in a cruiser.
I don't care. I'm driving this car. I smoke. Don't tell me. Smoke your cigarette back there. We're going to jail. So 99.9% of my uh people that I arrested. We laughed and had a good time going to jail. If they wanted to listen to Bluegrass, we listen to Bluegrass. If you wanted Hard Rock, whatever you want to do, and we would turn it wide open. I got respect by being that way. People would come and turn their self into me that was wanted with warrants. What is the story with drugs here? I don't know if you're married. I am.
I've got kids and I'm not going to say that I'd ever stoop well enough to sell drugs or take drugs, which I'm completely drug free. Always have, nor do I drink alcohol. Don't permit it on my property. But I will tell you this, people in this area is going to do what they have to do to live. And I don't care if it's sell drugs. I don't care if it's steal. I don't care what it is. And there was not enough law enforcement to combat the problem. Also, I will tell you this, and I might step on some toes in Wimson. A police officer can do his job. We can arrest the whole place and take you to jail. But when court time comes, when all you get is slap on the wrist and turn back loose, they're going to do it all over
again because they know ain't nothing going to happen. And that's what happens right here in Mingo County, West Virginia. I'm hard notes and I tell it like this. And I don't care who I'm talking to. I don't care if Trump was standing here and I don't care if the Pope was standing there. I'm still going to tell them the same thing. I got one question. Yeah. Have you run into anybody so far in this area that is blunt as I was? Uh, no. After a bit more driving, we reach Williamson, Mingo County's largest town. With a population of 3,200, drug wholesalers sent 21 million painkiller
pills toarmacies here between 2006 and 2016. The toll of that is still evident. I'm Clayton. Nice to meet you, buddy. You remember? Make sure them dogs don't get a hold of you. Wait, there's two loose pits. Yeah. Two black ones running around somewhere. What's it like around here? Pretty t about like it is right now. Like you see it. Yeah. It seems pretty quiet, peaceful.
It's during the day, I guess. Yeah. Night time it gets a little bit rowdy. People partying, getting high, stuff like that. You from here? Uh well, close by. You're over D. It's about here. Someone told us about D. It's kind of like uh it's off in it own little world over. Yeah. When you go see the tunnel, when you get there, you'll see what I'm talking about. There's a tunnel that's almost a mile long. It is.
Yeah, that's what that separates us from the real world. I guess that's where we go in our next video. One of our favorites that we've ever shot. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss it. Why'd you move here? The drugs basically. Yeah. Get closer to the drugs. You know, just being honest. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And I've been working on it, getting off of it last year or so. I guess it's tough. It has, but I've been I'm going pretty good at it. I go to this clinic right up here, go down, get methodone, help keep off of it, you know. It works.
I've had uh so-called friends. I've had a lot of friends die from it, you know, and it's not easy, you know. It really ain't. If you do stay on it, you know, you end up in jail or dead. So drugs in Williamson are all over the place. Oh yeah. Well, not nothing like it used to be. They put a whammy on it. I guess Trump's doing what he said. He's taking he's putting it out of here. Every day it's getting harder and harder. You know, hard harder to find drugs. Yeah, it really is. Do you feel like there's a community here or do you feel like people kind of have to get each other?
H there's some close friends here. They are. They're down. I don't care what kind of person they was before. They will steal. They'll cheat and they'll lie. I don't care who says it. Ain't no different. I'm not the same person I used to be. You know what I mean? I know that. But I still I'm not out here robbing stealing people and [__] Still a piece of [__] but not to that standard. When you got that right there, it does. It makes a whole lot of stuff go away. It makes it a whole lot easier. It does.
Are you addicted to fentanyl? Yeah. Before that, heroin or Yeah. You know, I started out, you know, got hurt going to the doctor for getting pain pills and went from wanting pain pills like Lord Tab, whatever. Just kept working my way up and over the years as I was working, I get hurt again or something like that. And I keep getting put on stronger and stronger. I just I go to the doctor and I just keep writing and I keep doing, you know, I work my minds and stuff every day and drove cold trucks. Uh, and I kept a pocket full of pills cuz back then a pain pill was like $5 compared to what they are today. Uh, instead of paying $50 for a pill that won't even get you high, I go buy $20 stamp of heroin and me and lady both
could get high off of it. You know what I mean? And then went from the $20 stamp of heroin to the pin. The narc, you know, it's saved my life quite a few times. It has. And dumb ask me. I don't know why for why I do it, but I keep going right back to it and doing it again. And honestly, uh, they narc me when I wake up. Give me lines. As soon as I wake up and be narc, no lie. That's bad, ain't it? I know that, but it's the truth. The truth, you know. It is. That's the truth. Now you're trying to get off it. What led you to that? cuz I'm not the same person I used to be before CO ever hit. You know, I had a great life. I really did. Had a great life, great wife, and now ain't got enough. Now that I'm trying to stay
clean and stay off of it, I still got to go back with all that [__] from before and deal with it now. You know what I mean? That I've covered up over the years. I really ain't gain nothing, but lost a shitload of money on drugs and everything wrong. you know, a little bit more time and it'll be gone. And they I already heard somebody talking that they've already got something out stronger than Pent now. It's supposed to be like 10 times or 20 times stronger pent. What's that called? You know, I don't know. I just heard about history. Hey Clayton. Hey. What? Can I take you for a walk for me, please?
We're just talking on the internet here. Fair. That's enough. Drugs are only one problem here. Alongside that, Cole collapsed, costing the town 70% of its population. Today, its population is a fraction of what it once was. Of all the towns we visited across the US, this is one of the grimmst. And there are some hints of prosperity. You do have a couple businesses downtown. There are some tourists here. There are some nice houses, but the population of the city has gone from 9,000 around 1950 to 3,000 today. Just one thing after another has led to people leaving. So, you do have some tourist businesses. You
do have some stuff catering to that. But this was a coal boom town and that ended a long time ago. Something about being here is like evoking some deep childhood memory or something. Like it feels like places that used to exist and then kind of fell by the wayside. We just went inside a restaurant here. just went inside a restaurant here to use a bathroom and it just felt like it was straight out of like the early 90s and I don't know how to describe it. It just feels like a memory of something that used to exist. So, we just ran into these guys here. So, tell us about where are we? What's this building? Uh, we are at the old hospital on College Hill in Williamson, West Virginia. This place was built back in the 30s by Dr. Connley. If you come here
and you uh investigate this place, um it is haunted. You can actually rent the doctor's house to stay in as well. Also allegedly haunted. You shot a video here last night. Yeah. What kind of what did you experience? What kind of evidence did you see? Well, within the first 5 minutes, I got something crazy to show you. Obtained those. Never in my life. I've been uh doing paranormal investigations for almost nine years and not once have I ever been scratched. And that happened within the first five minutes here.
Yeah, we were getting set up trying to get the banner in order and uh we saw the uh the camera and we were like, "Yeah, let's uh saw the road stick." But yeah, this is the old hospital, man. Like I said, this is the uh addition that was put on in the 80s. And uh basically right where you're standing is where Mos Blackburn fell uh when he jumped out the window. Here is uh the threshold photo before this addition that we're st that we were standing in. Down there's the basement and uh right around the corner here uh is where I got scratched right on the other side of that body cooler. And we have an experiment set up here. U we set up
these bells. Um very analog, no digital. Um because the last time I was here was about 4 years ago. the body cooler was actually right where you're standing. And after laying in it for about a half hour, um we, you know, we weren't getting a lot of device interaction. And so we started picking up gear and lights and everything. As we were, uh packing up gear and I mean, you can walk by and it barely moves. In the video, we had a static camera running while we were picking up and that do not entertape just goes flailing. And we have no explanation for it. I wish I had um some devices on me. They're all down at the house. But who was it?
Did you hear that? Hello? Did you hear that? Oh, I heard it. If I make a knock, can you finish the knock, please? Can you make a sound to let us know where you're at? Yeah. And this is where I got scratched, dude. Like I heard something. Yeah. I heard it and I heard it again right after. If you believe there's something there, make sure to hit that subscribe button. Did you was that I was just It's a beautiful place. These communities have been rocked by drugs, poverty, and neglect. Yet they were beautiful and charming. And the people who remained were warm and earnest. And they all kept telling us
the same thing. Everything was worse in Dingus. Situated over the mountains from here on the other side of a mileong one-way abandoned train tunnel, Dingis is one of West Virginia's most isolated communities. People told us it was a land of outlaws and addicts perched on their porches with shotguns. So once done in Williamson, we got back in the car and headed off toward the tunnel, totally unaware of the eye-opening experience we were about to have. We have no idea what to expect on the other end of this tunnel.
